From the mouths of babes.

Today was Yom Kippur - a day of Atonement in Judaism and a 25 hour no food or water fast for all adults. I tried to explain to the Little Dreamer (age 5) that we fast so that we can focus on reflecting on the past year and our deeds and how to become a better person in the future. She was thoughtful all day and by the end of it proclaimed that since she can eat and think at the same time, she will forgo fasting when she grows up. Well, there you go then.

For the love of clothes

I love people. I love talking to them, working with them, getting to know them, so custom orders are a lot of fun for me. I am hoping to do a few posts that highlight some of them

I really enjoyed working on this one.

Two friends ordered it for a third that works as a consultant (or Trunk Keeper as they are called) for Matilda Jane Clothing. They sent me photos of the outfits their friend likes most and left up to me what to do with that. I also did my own research and the outfits are too cute for words. You can bet that my girls will be getting some for the holidays :). I decided to put the clothes on the clothes line and added the girl's name and the company to the top. My customers were a joy to work with and promised to let me know their friend's reaction. I hope she likes her gift :)

Jumping in puddles

I used to love doing this as a kid :) So many puddles and not a parent in sight :)

First Snow

A bit out of season but I live in California so it doesn't really matter :)

Happy Birthday, little brother :)

Happy 24th birthday to my baby brother :)

To my dear 19 month old...

Trust me when I say that it's not your job to greet the sun every single day ;)

Illustration Friday - Jump

 

Jumping for joy.

I decided to just keep it light and quick today :)

Illustration Friday - Return (2)

We will build a plane and soar
Over woodland, sea and shore,
Over woodland, sea and shore,
And return to Mom once more.


Agnia Barto, translated from Russian by I. Zheleznova

I love that this week's IF topic is so open ended. Agnia Barto is one of my absolute favorite Russian children's poets so it was a great opportunity to illustrate one of her nursery rhymes. I have to admit that growing up with her books, the illustrations  become as ingrained in you as the poems themselves so the composition of this piece was heavily influenced by the Russian illustrator Svetlana Borisova.

Illustration Friday - Return

Special Delivery - Returns are NOT accepted.

I am dedicating this to 3 very special moms:

I - who gave birth to her second little boy 11 weeks ago and inspired the original sketch for this.
K - whose little boy is due to arrive in a little over a month
and last but certainly not least
A - whose little boy is celebrating his first birthday today! Happy Birthday M!

Ballet Partners

My sketches tend to turn out a lot better than my finished pieces. Somehow I always manage to lose the movement and the depth somewhere between the sketch and the final color version regardless of the color medium I choose to work with. I am particularly happy with both the idea for this piece and the way the sketch turned out so I wanted to post it here before I went ahead and ruined it. Practice makes perfect and I will post the final version when I am done even if doesn't live up to the sketch's potential.

Tiny Ballerinas

Life inspires art and my little girls inspire me :-)

The paper is a too big for my scanner and I feel the original had a bit more air on the left making for a better composition. I might try to rescan tomorrow but it's going on midnight here and I don't want to risk waking up my muses.

Illustration Friday - Yield

Who will yield first?

Illustration Friday - Capable

This week's Illustration Friday topic word is "capable":

This little bear is capable of anything she puts her mind to.

I used markers and ink for this illustration and markers are a lot trickier a medium than I anticipated. I imagined something a bit lighter and  more fluid (to borrow last week's word) but I think I will have to break out the water colors for that.

Here is my initial sketch of the bear reaching for the stars:

I changed the angle a little in the final version to make it more visually interesting. I think in the original, the "reaching" action is more pronounced but my sample audience of a 4 year old girl (my daughter) and a 33 year old boy (my husband, who pointed out the flatness of the original sketch and so was a bit biased) preferred the later version.

Naptime doodles :)